Compositions and supplements including various nutritional components, such as vitamins, minerals, and specifically DHA, are not only useful for their general nutritional qualities to supplement a diet, but also for physiological development. Such supplements are generally useful for all children and adults, and are particularly useful for a developing fetus, newborn infants, and their mothers.
In the development of a child, during both the prenatal pregnancy period and postnatal period after the child has been born, compositions consumed by the mother are generally passed to the child. For example, compositions such as vitamin/mineral supplements taken by the mother during pregnancy will elevate the level of desirable vitamins and minerals in her blood, which supplies the placenta and umbilical cord thereby passing those vitamins and minerals to the growing baby. After birth, the newborn baby receives these vitamins and minerals through nursing and ingesting the mother's breast milk during lactation.
Various different vitamins, minerals, and other nutritional elements have been found to be desirable for the perinatal development of a child. For example, vitamins such as A, folic acid, B1, B2, niacinamide, B6, B12, C, D, E and K, and minerals such as calcium, copper, iron, zinc, and magnesium, are all considered to be desirable and even essential for pregnant/lactating women. In addition to the desirable transfer of such vitamins, minerals, and nutritional elements to the developing child, the compositions are also desirable for replenishing the vitamin, mineral and/or other nutritional deficiencies in the mother's body.
One such nutritional element that is desirable for perinatal child development is docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a member of the omega-3 family of fatty acids. DHA has been found to be essential for the healthy development of the cerebral cortex of the brain and retina in a baby as well as in an adult. It has been estimated that about half of the quantity of DHA in a fetus' body accumulates in the brain before birth and about half after birth, an indication of the importance of DHA to the fetus during pregnancy and then to the young infant during lactation. The baby generally receives DHA through the placenta during pregnancy, and in breast milk after birth and during lactation. To that end, a mother taking supplements containing DHA during both pregnancy and after childbirth will elevate the DHA levels in her blood thereby supplying the baby. Thus, with regular DHA dosages, the baby will receive adequate levels of DHA for healthy neurological and vision development during prenatal and post-natal periods, and the depleted levels of DHA in the mother are restored.
In addition, the nutritional and health benefits of DHA for the mother are also desirable. For example, supplementation of DHA for a mother has been shown to help in the prevention of depression, including postpartum depression, after the baby is born. Further, the benefits and positive effects of DHA extend well past infancy and into childhood as well. For example, supplementation of DHA in the nutritional regimen of a child has been found to be desirable in the prevention of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.
Still further, DHA has also been found to be important for the immunological system, cardiovascular system, central nervous system, and, in essence, DHA generally plays some role in every organ in the body. For example, immune response disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disorder have been reduced by DHA supplementation in a diet. DHA has desirable effects in preventing heart disease and lowering the level of undesirable triglycerides in the blood. Furthermore, DHA supplementation has been found to be useful in preventing Alzheimer disease and dementia in elderly patients. Thus, it is desirable to provide DHA to adults as well as to children.
Research has shown that children over the age of five and adults need about 480 mg of DHA per day for the first three months of supplementation. After three months a maintenance dose of half of this amount is recommended. Children under the age of five should be given about 240 mg of DHA a day from day one.
Dietary supplements, typically in the form of a tablet or capsule, are commercially available to provide expecting mothers, new mothers, children and adults with nutritional elements including vitamins and minerals needed to supplement their diet. DHA supplements are also available. While currently-available supplements, and in particular pre-natal supplements, contain a multitude of vitamins and minerals in a single tablet or capsule, fatty acids such as DHA are not included in the tablet or capsule in recommended quantities. DHA, therefore, is provided in such quantities in a separate, independent supplement. Thus, persons, particularly mothers, both expecting and lactating, must consume more than one supplement in order to get the proper amounts of vitamins, minerals and DHA that they may need for proper development, and more specifically, for the healthy development of a fetus and/or a nursing infant. Taking multiple supplements is a particular hardship for a pregnant woman or a new mother.
For example, some commercially available supplements include DHA, with vitamins and/or minerals. However, such compositions generally contain only small, or even trace, amounts of DHA therein. One such supplement, ‘Attention’ capsules for children, commercially available from Icpsolution, contains only 83 mg of DHA per capsule. Thus, the child must take three capsules to get the recommended daily dosage of DHA. Furthermore, such a supplement is not directed to the needs of a pregnant or lactating mother and her child.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,258,846 discloses nutritional supplements containing 10-100 mg of DHA along with other vitamins and minerals. However, a mother would have to take more than two supplements per day to consume the recommended daily dose and/or a healthy dose. An expecting mother would have to take even more than that to properly supplement her own body as well as that of the growing fetus.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,601 discloses a nutritional supplement containing DHA in combination with some vitamins needed on a daily basis. However, the supplement is not directed to the needs of a pregnant or lactating mother and her child and does not include the much needed minerals and consequently, these minerals must be taken as a separate tablet or capsule on a daily basis or as necessary.
As a result, the prior art compositions and supplements do not adequately address the levels of DHA, vitamins and minerals needed by adults and/or children and particularly do not address the levels needed in the blood supply of a mother during pregnancy and desired in breast milk during lactation. As may be appreciated, prenatal and postnatal times are often very busy and sometimes stressful for a mother. This is particularly so if the child being born has older siblings also needing the mother's care and attention. As such, maintaining a nutritional regimen by taking supplements, and even only a single supplement, can often be a difficult task. It is particularly difficult, however, when multiple supplements have to be taken in order to obtain all the necessary nutritional elements, including vitamins, minerals, and other compositions, both throughout pregnancy and in the postnatal period. If the regimen becomes too overwhelming, the mother may simply neglect taking the supplements, not only depriving herself of the desirable nutrition in the supplements, but also robbing the baby of the benefits, as well.
Therefore, it is desirable to ease the burden of an expectant mother during and after pregnancy. It is particularly desirable to encourage an expectant mother to take the necessary nutritional supplements in the perinatal period which will ensure her health, as well as the health and proper development of the baby.
It is further desirable to supply DHA to a mother during the perinatal period in levels sufficient to ensure that the health benefits may be realized for both herself and her child.
The problems of having to take more than one tablet/capsule of more than one supplement to get the recommended dose of DHA and other needed vitamins and minerals exists with every person, whether child or adult. Thus, it is further desirable to provide a nutritional regimen for other persons, besides mothers and developing or newborn infants, which supplies the necessary vitamins, minerals, and DHA in recommended dosages with more convenience than supplements of the prior art.